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PeopleForBikes reaches 1 million supporters

BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — Launched in 2010 as a campaign by Bikes Belong, PeopleForBikes said it reached its goal of one million pledging members and supporters Thursday.

According to the national nonprofit that has rebranded to PeopleForBikes, until its campaign launched, fewer than 250,000 people had taken any action to improve cycling by joining an advocacy group.

"Today is a historic day for PeopleForBikes. We are proud to have one million individuals standing behind our vision and goals," said Tim Blumenthal, president of PeopleForBikes. "We would like to thank everyone who has showed their support for better bicycling."

PeopleForBikes has mobilized its supporters and urged them to step up and be heard. The nonprofit says that hundreds of thousands of letters have been sent to Congress by individual members and helped create more than 29,000 bike paths, lanes and trails.

PeopleForBikes said that while it will continue to seek supporters, it's shifting focus to what it calls the "5X" initiative: its goal to grow key elements of cycling in America by 500 percent over the next 10 years. The areas it's targeting for this "5X" push are:

• PFB's base of supporters: from 1 million to 5 million• Total number of annual bike rides: from 4 billion to 20 billion• Total number of protected bike lanes: from 200 lanes to 1,000 lanes• Public and private investments in cycling: from $2 billion to $10 billion